ron madison is here with the details on that. ron. >> yeah, we are seeing a bit of a slowdown, gene, but still pretty enviable numbers out of china. chinese government economists there say they do expect their economy will grow this year by less than 8%, though. it would be the first time in 13 years that it's dropped below that mark. the government targeted growth of 7.5%. a representative of the chinese academy of social sciences said the economy would grow 7.7%. >> translator: china's exports are slowing because of the european debt crisis and the global economic slowdown. >> he said the economy bottomed out in the july-to-september quarter, but consumption as well as industrial output improved in september and october. he's predicting growth will rebound next year to about 8.2%. he said increased public investment and more monetary easing would spur the economy. but li called for flexible government policies if the situation in europe gets any worse. >>> a report sponsored by the u.s. government says that shipping surplus sha